YELLOW PERIL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10958, 26 December 1911, Page 4

YELLOW PERIL.

NORTHERN TERRITORY. PROFESSOR GILRUTH'S VIEWS. (Special to the Post.) Auckland. December 23. The potentialities of the Northern Territory of Australia and the possibilities of the yellow races ever invading its exposed and unprotected shores, was the subject of a brief interview yesterday morning with Professor J. A. Gilruth." who for many years was at the head of the New Zealand State Veterinary Department, and who is now associated with tho Melbourne University. The professor has just recently been malcing an extensive tour in the region of Port Darwin, ami he says that the country is wonderfully rich, and capable of growing almost anything. The country is at present given over to cattle, and Professor Gifruth says that- this vast area is not populated with one domesticated aiiinial to the square mile, even when European men were thrown in. There was praoticallv no freehold: but great areas of .scores of thousands of acres were leased at the rate of Is to 2s per square mile. The country was magnificently watered, and it was possible to proceed nearly 100 miles up some of the rivers in ocean-going vessels. Questioned as to the Yellow peril in these regions. Professor Gilruth said he thought it was a real peril. Within Lthirtv hours' sail there were fifty millions of Javanese in the Dutch Indies, who were, beyond doubt, casting longing eves at the rich unpeopled spaces of the Northern Territory. At the end of the Ist century the population of the Dutch Indies was about five millions; in a hundred years it had increased ten times. An outlet had to be found. What more enticing than this territory, six times the size of New Zealand, practically unpeopled, oertainlv unprotected ? The danger, Professor Gilruth considered to be real, and the only hope was to people this rich territory. White men. he sa>s. could easily adapt themselves to the climate and work there.